Adriaan van Dis

Adriaan van Dis, who grew up in a family with a Indonesian history, is a famous Dutch writer and tv personality. Adriaan van Dis's work includes novels, novellas, short stories, essays, poetry and plays. He is also known as the host of his own award winning literary talkshow named 'Hier is... Adriaan van Dis', that lasted from 1983 to 1992, and several successful award winning television documentaries. With the publication of his Indies inspired compilation book The Indies Books (De Indië boeken) in 2012, Van Dis established himself as one of the most significant second generation authors of Dutch Indies literature. In 2016 he got a lifetime achievement award De Constantijn Huygens prize. In 2008 he made a 7-part series entitled "Van Dis in Afrika" in which he reported on his travels to Southern Africa. The series won the Zilveren Nipkowschijf. In 2012 he made a documentary TV series about Dutch roots in contemporary Indonesia. The Dutch institute for TV classification tried to have parts of the show censored. After which van Dis reacted with: "Have they learned nothing from Multatuli?". Van Dis was one of the initiators of the National Slavery Monument. Van Dis is often co-host of the daily tv show De Wereld Draait Door, and discusses topics like equal rights regularly.